System and method for cross-domain recommendations

ABSTRACT

An electronic device for providing cross-domain recommendations includes a memory and at least one processor coupled to the memory. The at least one processor is configured to receive one or more notifications of at least one user activity in a content provider application, build at least one query based on the one or more notifications, and provide the at least one query to a database, receive at least one cross-domain action from the database. The at least one processor is also configured to generate at least one cross-domain recommendation based on the cross-domain action and instruct an application to display the at least one cross-domain recommendation.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION AND CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 62/755,964 filed on Nov. 5, 2018 andentitled “System and Method for Cross-Domain Recommendations.” Thisprovisional patent application is hereby incorporated by reference inits entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates generally to machine learning systems. Morespecifically, this disclosure relates to a system and method forcross-domain recommendations.

BACKGROUND

In existing situations where recommendations are provided, displays ofrecommendations are typically static in nature. Additionally, suchrecommendations are typically reminders, frequent contacts, etc., withvery little intelligent analysis, resulting in a generic ranking order.

SUMMARY

This disclosure provides a system and method for cross-domainrecommendations.

In one embodiment, an electronic device is provided. The electronicdevice includes a memory and at least one processor coupled to thememory. The at least one processor is configured to receive one or morenotifications of at least one user activity in a content providerapplication, build at least one query based on the one or morenotifications, provide the at least one query to a database, receive atleast one cross-domain action from the database, generate at least onecross-domain recommendation based on the cross-domain action, andinstruct an application to display the at least one cross-domainrecommendation.

In another embodiment, a method is provided. The method includesreceiving one or more notifications of at least one user activity in acontent provider application, building at least one query based on theone or more notifications, providing the at least one query to adatabase, receiving at least one cross-domain action from the database,generating at least one cross-domain recommendation based on thecross-domain action, and instructing an application to display the atleast one cross-domain recommendation.

In yet another embodiment, a non-transitory computer readable mediumembodying a computer program for operating an electronic deviceincluding a memory and at least one processor is provided. The computerprogram includes computer readable instructions that, when executed bythe at least one processor, cause the electronic device to receive oneor more notifications of at least one user activity in a contentprovider application, build at least one query based on the one or morenotifications, provide the at least one query to a database, receive atleast one cross-domain action from the database, generate at least onecross-domain recommendation based on the cross-domain action, andinstruct an application to display the at least one cross-domainrecommendation.

Other technical features may be readily apparent to one skilled in theart from the following figures, descriptions, and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of this disclosure and its advantages,reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numeralsrepresent like parts:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network configuration in accordance withvarious embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example graph database configuration in accordancewith various embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example entity data relationship model inaccordance with various embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example personalized recommendation model inaccordance with various embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of an example graph database creation andupdate process in accordance with various embodiments of thisdisclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example cross-domain recommendation queryingsystem in accordance with various embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of an example cross-domain recommendationprocess in accordance with various embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 8 illustrates a sequence diagram of an example cross-domainrecommendation process in accordance with various embodiments of thisdisclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates an example cross-domain service co-reference event inaccordance with various embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example cross-domain service co-occurrence inaccordance with various embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 11 illustrates a flowchart of an example cross-domain serviceco-occurrence process in accordance with various embodiments of thisdisclosure;

FIG. 12 illustrates an example graph database update process inaccordance with various embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 13 illustrates a flowchart of an example graph database updateprocess in accordance with various embodiments of this disclosure;

FIGS. 14A and 14B illustrate an example user graph in accordance withvarious embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 15 illustrates an example user graph in accordance with variousembodiments of this disclosure; and

FIG. 16 illustrates an example user graph showing example properties inaccordance with various embodiments of this disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIGS. 1 through 16, discussed below, and the various embodiments of thisdisclosure are described with reference to the accompanying drawings.However, it should be appreciated that this disclosure is not limited tothe embodiments and all changes and/or equivalents or replacementsthereto also belong to the scope of this disclosure. The same or similarreference denotations may be used to refer to the same or similarelements throughout the specification and the drawings.

Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION below, it may beadvantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases usedthroughout this patent document. The terms “transmit,” “receive,” and“communicate,” as well as derivatives thereof, encompass both direct andindirect communication. The terms “include” and “comprise,” as well asderivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation. The term “or” isinclusive, meaning and/or. The phrase “associated with,” as well asderivatives thereof, means to include, be included within, interconnectwith, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to orwith, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, beproximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, have arelationship to or with, or the like.

Moreover, various functions described below can be implemented orsupported by one or more computer programs, each of which is formed fromcomputer readable program code and embodied in a computer readablemedium. The terms “application” and “program” refer to one or morecomputer programs, software components, sets of instructions,procedures, functions, objects, classes, instances, related data, or aportion thereof adapted for implementation in a suitable computerreadable program code. The phrase “computer readable program code”includes any type of computer code, including source code, object code,and executable code. The phrase “computer readable medium” includes anytype of medium capable of being accessed by a computer, such as readonly memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), a hard disk drive, acompact disc (CD), a digital video disc (DVD), or any other type ofmemory. A “non-transitory” computer readable medium excludes wired,wireless, optical, or other communication links that transporttransitory electrical or other signals. A non-transitory computerreadable medium includes media where data can be permanently stored andmedia where data can be stored and later overwritten, such as arewritable optical disc or an erasable memory device.

As used here, terms and phrases such as “have,” “may have,” “include,”or “may include” a feature (like a number, function, operation, orcomponent such as a part) indicate the existence of the feature and donot exclude the existence of other features. Also, as used here, thephrases “A or B,” “at least one of A and/or B,” or “one or more of Aand/or B” may include all possible combinations of A and B. For example,“A or B,” “at least one of A and B,” and “at least one of A or B” mayindicate all of (1) including at least one A, (2) including at least oneB, or (3) including at least one A and at least one B. Further, as usedhere, the terms “first” and “second” may modify various componentsregardless of importance and do not limit the components. These termsare only used to distinguish one component from another. For example, afirst user device and a second user device may indicate different userdevices from each other, regardless of the order or importance of thedevices. A first component may be denoted a second component and viceversa without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

It will be understood that, when an element (such as a first element) isreferred to as being (operatively or communicatively) “coupled with/to”or “connected with/to” another element (such as a second element), itcan be coupled or connected with/to the other element directly or via athird element. In contrast, it will be understood that, when an element(such as a first element) is referred to as being “directly coupledwith/to” or “directly connected with/to” another element (such as asecond element), no other element (such as a third element) intervenesbetween the element and the other element.

As used here, the phrase “configured (or set) to” may be interchangeablyused with the phrases “suitable for,” “having the capacity to,”“designed to,” “adapted to,” “made to,” or “capable of” depending on thecircumstances. The phrase “configured (or set) to” does not essentiallymean “specifically designed in hardware to.” Rather, the phrase“configured to” may mean that a device can perform an operation togetherwith another device or parts. For example, the phrase “processorconfigured (or set) to perform A, B, and C” may mean a generic-purposeprocessor (such as a CPU or application processor) that may perform theoperations by executing one or more software programs stored in a memorydevice or a dedicated processor (such as an embedded processor) forperforming the operations.

The terms and phrases as used here are provided merely to describe someembodiments of this disclosure but not to limit the scope of otherembodiments of this disclosure. It is to be understood that the singularforms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural references unless the contextclearly dictates otherwise. All terms and phrases, including technicaland scientific terms and phrases, used here have the same meanings ascommonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which theembodiments of this disclosure belong. It will be further understoodthat terms and phrases, such as those defined in commonly-useddictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that isconsistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art andwill not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unlessexpressly so defined here. In some cases, the terms and phrases definedhere may be interpreted to exclude embodiments of this disclosure.

Examples of an “electronic device” according to embodiments of thisdisclosure may include at least one of a smartphone, a tablet personalcomputer (PC), a mobile phone, a video phone, an e-book reader, adesktop PC, a laptop computer, a netbook computer, a workstation, apersonal digital assistant (PDA), a portable multimedia player (PMP), anMP3 player, a mobile medical device, a camera, or a wearable device(such as smart glasses, a head-mounted device (HMD), electronic clothes,an electronic bracelet, an electronic necklace, an electronicappcessory, an electronic tattoo, a smart mirror, or a smart watch).Other examples of an electronic device include a smart home appliance.Examples of the smart home appliance may include at least one of atelevision, a digital video disc (DVD) player, an audio player, arefrigerator, an air conditioner, a cleaner, an oven, a microwave oven,a washer, a drier, an air cleaner, a set-top box, a home automationcontrol panel, a security control panel, a TV box (such SAMSUNGHOMESYNC, APPLETV, or GOOGLE TV), a gaming console (such as an XBOX,PLAYSTATION, or NINTENDO), an electronic dictionary, an electronic key,a camcorder, or an electronic picture frame. Still other examples of anelectronic device include at least one of various medical devices (suchas diverse portable medical measuring devices (like a blood sugarmeasuring device, a heartbeat measuring device, or a body temperaturemeasuring device), a magnetic resource angiography (MRA) device, amagnetic resource imaging (MM) device, a computed tomography (CT)device, an imaging device, or an ultrasonic device), a navigationdevice, a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, an event datarecorder (EDR), a flight data recorder (FDR), an automotive infotainmentdevice, a sailing electronic device (such as a sailing navigation deviceor a gyro compass), avionics, security devices, vehicular head units,industrial or home robots, automatic teller machines (ATMs), point ofsales (POS) devices, or Internet of Things (IoT) devices (such as abulb, various sensors, electric or gas meter, sprinkler, fire alarm,thermostat, street light, toaster, fitness equipment, hot water tank,heater, or boiler). Other examples of an electronic device include atleast one part of a piece of furniture or building/structure, anelectronic board, an electronic signature receiving device, a projector,or various measurement devices (such as devices for measuring water,electricity, gas, or electromagnetic waves). Note that, according tovarious embodiments of this disclosure, an electronic device may be oneor a combination of the above-listed devices. According to someembodiments of this disclosure, the electronic device may be a flexibleelectronic device. The electronic device disclosed here is not limitedto the above-listed devices and may include new electronic devicesdepending on the development of technology.

In the following description, electronic devices are described withreference to the accompanying drawings, according to various embodimentsof this disclosure. As used here, the term “user” may denote a human oranother device (such as an artificial intelligent electronic device)using the electronic device.

Definitions for other certain words and phrases may be providedthroughout this patent document. Those of ordinary skill in the artshould understand that in many if not most instances, such definitionsapply to prior as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.

None of the description in this application should be read as implyingthat any particular element, step, or function is an essential elementthat must be included in the claim scope. The scope of patented subjectmatter is defined only by the claims. Moreover, none of the claims isintended to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) unless the exact words “means for”are followed by a participle. Use of any other term, including withoutlimitation “mechanism,” “module,” “device,” “unit,” “component,”“element,” “member,” “apparatus,” “machine,” “system,” “processor,” or“controller,” within a claim is understood by the Applicant to refer tostructures known to those skilled in the relevant art and is notintended to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112(f).

In existing solutions where recommendations are provided, displays ofrecommendations are typically static in nature and often consist ofreminders, frequent contacts, etc., with very little intelligentanalysis, resulting in a generic ranking order. Such solutions may usean algorithmic feed to provide content, such as by providing trafficnotifications based on a change in nearby traffic, news articles basedon user preferences or linking of user feed content types, such assubject matter, displaying pre-configured partner content, providinginformation based on user searches such as flights or other information.Other information or content provided to the user may be ordered asdefined by the user, such as by ordering widgets small userinterfaces—on a display of an electronic device, such that the order andnature of the content is user-defined. This only provides the user witha stream of data specific to the widgets and does not alert the user toother, undiscovered content and services.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network configuration 100 in accordancewith various embodiments of this disclosure. The embodiment of thenetwork configuration 100 shown in FIG. 1 is for illustration only.Other embodiments of the network configuration 100 could be used withoutdeparting from the scope of this disclosure.

According to embodiments of this disclosure, an electronic device 101 isincluded in the network environment 100. The electronic device 101 caninclude at least one of a bus 110, a processor 120, a memory 130, aninput/output (TO) interface 150, a display 160, a communicationinterface 170, or an event processing module 180. In some embodiments,the electronic device 101 may exclude at least one of the components ormay add another component.

The bus 110 includes a circuit for connecting the components 120 to 180with one another and transferring communications (such as controlmessages and/or data) between the components. The processor 120 includesone or more of a central processing unit (CPU), an application processor(AP), or a communication processor (CP). The processor 120 is able toperform control on at least one of the other components of theelectronic device 101 and/or perform an operation or data processingrelating to communication. In some embodiments, the processor can be agraphics processor unit (GPU). In accordance with various embodiments ofthis disclosure, the processor 120 can build cross-domain recommendationaction queries, provide cross-domain actions and content query requestinformation, display content like cross-domain recommendations includinguser interfaces and data related to the recommendations, receive andprocess user inputs related to content provider applications,cross-domain recommendations, or perform other actions as described inthis disclosure.

The memory 130 can include a volatile and/or non-volatile memory. Forexample, the memory 130 can store commands or data related to at leastone other component of the electronic device 101. According toembodiments of this disclosure, the memory 130 can store software and/ora program 140. The program 140 includes, for example, a kernel 141,middleware 143, an application programming interface (API) 145, and/oran application program (or “application”) 147. At least a portion of thekernel 141, middleware 143, or API 145 may be denoted an operatingsystem (OS).

The kernel 141 can control or manage system resources (such as the bus110, processor 120, or a memory 130) used to perform operations orfunctions implemented in other programs (such as the middleware 143, API145, or application program 147). The kernel 141 provides an interfacethat allows the middleware 143, the API 145, or the application 147 toaccess the individual components of the electronic device 101 to controlor manage the system resources. The application 147 can include a hostapplication acting as a hub for user information, notifications,recommendations, and other content. A host application can be a displaysurface such as an intelligent assistant or digital assistance voiceclient, an intelligent assistant or digital assistant home userinterface or recommendation user interface, etc. The host applicationcan be displayed as a home screen on the electronic device 101 thatinteracts with other applications installed in the memory 130 of theelectronic device 101, and with outside services such as servicesoffered by mobile network service providers, device manufacturers, cloudcomputing services, or other services. The host application can alsooperate as a component of the operating system of the electronic device101. The application 147 can also include other applicationspre-installed on the electronic device 101 or installed by a user of theelectronic device 101. Such applications can include applications thatprovide travel services, music services, news services, shoppingservices, video services, or other services. These functions can beperformed by a single application, or multiple applications that eachcarry out one or more of these functions.

The middleware 143 can function as a relay to allow the API 145 or theapplication 147 to communicate data with the kernel 141, for example. Aplurality of applications 147 can be provided. The middleware 143 isable to control work requests received from the applications 147, forexample, by allocating the priority of using the system resources of theelectronic device 101 (such as the bus 110, the processor 120, or thememory 130) to at least one of the plurality of applications 147.

The API 145 is an interface allowing the application 147 to controlfunctions provided from the kernel 141 or the middleware 143. Forexample, the API 145 includes at least one interface or function (suchas a command) for filing control, window control, image processing ortext control.

The 10 interface 150 serves as an interface that can, for example,transfer commands or data input from a user or other external devices toother component(s) of the electronic device 101. Further, the IOinterface 150 can output commands or data received from othercomponent(s) of the electronic device 101 to the user or the otherexternal device.

The display 160 includes, for example, a liquid crystal display (LCD), alight emitting diode (LED) display, an organic light emitting diode(OLED) display, a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) display, or anelectronic paper display. The display 160 can also be a depth-awaredisplay, such as a multi-focal display. The display 160 is able todisplay, for example, various contents (such as text, images, videos,icons, or symbols) to the user. The display 160 can include atouchscreen and may receive, for example, a touch, gesture, proximity,or hovering input using an electronic pen or a body portion of the user.

The communication interface 170, for example, is able to set upcommunication between the electronic device 101 and an externalelectronic device (such as a first electronic device 102, a secondelectronic device 104, or a server 106). For example, the communicationinterface 170 can be connected with the network 162 or 164 throughwireless or wired communication to communicate with the externalelectronic device. The communication interface 170 can be a wired orwireless transceiver or any other component for transmitting andreceiving signals, such as signals received by the communicationinterface 170 regarding content provider application signals, content,data and user interfaces, signals transmitted by the communicationinterface 170 regarding action queries for cross-domain recommendations,signals received by the communication interface 170 regardingcross-domain recommendation actions and content queries, or othersignals.

The electronic device 101 further includes one or more sensors that canmeter a physical quantity or detect an activation state of theelectronic device 101 and convert metered or detected information intoan electrical signal. For example, a sensor can include one or morebuttons for touch input, one or more cameras, a gesture sensor, agyroscope or gyro sensor, an air pressure sensor, a magnetic sensor ormagnetometer, an acceleration sensor or accelerometer, a grip sensor, aproximity sensor, a color sensor (such as a red green blue (RGB)sensor), a bio-physical sensor, a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor,an illumination sensor, an ultraviolet (UV) sensor, an electromyography(EMG) sensor, an electroencephalogram (EEG) sensor, an electrocardiogram(ECG) sensor, an IR sensor, an ultrasound sensor, an iris sensor, afingerprint sensor, etc. The sensor(s) can further include a controlcircuit for controlling at least one of the sensors included therein.Any of these sensor(s) can be located within the electronic device 101.

The wireless communication is able to use at least one of, for example,long term evolution (LTE), long term evolution-advanced (LTE-A), 5thgeneration wireless system (5G), mm-wave or 60 GHz wirelesscommunication, Wireless USB, code division multiple access (CDMA),wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA), universal mobiletelecommunication system (UMTS), wireless broadband (WiBro), or globalsystem for mobile communication (GSM), as a cellular communicationprotocol. The wired connection can include at least one of universalserial bus (USB), high definition multimedia interface (HDMI),recommended standard 232 (RS-232), or plain old telephone service(POTS). The network 162 may include at least one communication network,such as a computer network (like a local area network (LAN) or wide areanetwork (WAN)), the Internet, or a telephone network.

The first and second external electronic devices 102 and 104 and server106 each can be a device of the same or a different type from theelectronic device 101. According to certain embodiments of thisdisclosure, the server 106 includes a group of one or more servers.Also, according to certain embodiments of this disclosure, all or someof operations executed on the electronic device 101 can be executed onanother or multiple other electronic devices (such as the electronicdevices 102 and 104 or server 106). Further, according to certainembodiments of this disclosure, when the electronic device 101 shouldperform some function or service automatically or at a request, theelectronic device 101, instead of executing the function or service onits own or additionally, can request another device (such as electronicdevices 102 and 104 or server 106) to perform at least some functionsassociated therewith. The other electronic device (such as electronicdevices 102 and 104 or server 106) is able to execute the requestedfunctions or additional functions and transfer a result of the executionto the electronic device 101. The electronic device 101 can provide arequested function or service by processing the received result as it isor additionally. To that end, a cloud computing, distributed computing,or client-server computing technique may be used, for example. WhileFIG. 1 shows that the electronic device 101 includes the communicationinterface 170 to communicate with the external electronic device 104 orserver 106 via the network 162, the electronic device 101 may beindependently operated without a separate communication function,according to embodiments of this disclosure.

The server 106 can include the same or similar components 110-180 as theelectronic device 101 (or a suitable subset thereof). The server 106 cansupport to drive the electronic device 101 by performing at least one ofoperations (or functions) implemented on the electronic device 101. Forexample, the server 106 can include a processing module or processorthat may support the processor 120 implemented in the electronic device101. The server 106 can also include an event processing module (notshown) that may support the event processing module 180 implemented inthe electronic device 101. For example, the event processing module 180can process at least a part of information obtained from other elements(such as the processor 120, the memory 130, the input/output interface150, or the communication interface 170) and can provide the same to theuser in various manners.

While in FIG. 1 the event processing module 180 is shown to be a moduleseparate from the processor 120, at least a portion of the eventprocessing module 180 can be included or implemented in the processor120 or at least one other module, or the overall function of the eventprocessing module 180 can be included or implemented in the processor120 or another processor. The event processing module 180 can performoperations according to embodiments of this disclosure in interoperationwith at least one program 140 stored in the memory 130.

Although FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a communication system 100,various changes may be made to FIG. 1. For example, the system 100 couldinclude any number of each component in any suitable arrangement. Ingeneral, computing and communication systems come in a wide variety ofconfigurations, and FIG. 1 does not limit the scope of this disclosureto any particular configuration. While FIG. 1 illustrates oneoperational environment in which various features disclosed in thispatent document can be used, these features could be used in any othersuitable system.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example graph database configuration 200 inaccordance with various embodiments of this disclosure. A graph databaseis a database that uses graph structures for semantic queries. The graphdatabase includes nodes, edges or relationship paths between the nodes,and properties to represent and store data. Relationships between thenodes allow data to be linked together directly and can allow for datato be retrieved in one operation. Graph databases allow for fastquerying of data, as the relationships are perpetually stored in thedatabase itself. Since graph databases allow for relationships to beintuitively visualized, graph databases are useful for heavilyinterconnected data.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the example graph database configuration 200includes a graph database 202 that manages a graph 204. The processor120 of the electronic device 101, 102, 104 or the server 106 can executethe graph database 202 or retrieve data from the graph database 202. Thegraph database 202 can be stored on the electronic device 101, 102, 104,the server 106, or other storage location accessible over the network162 or 164. In some embodiments, actions on the electronic device 101,102, 104 trigger a query to the server 106 to provide data from thegraph database 202, where the server 106 then transmits the data to theelectronic device 101, 102, 104.

The graph 204 records data in nodes 206 that have associated properties207. Properties 207 can include data stored in relation to the nodes orother objects in the graph database 202. In some embodiments, the nodes206 can represent a unique object representative of the result of anaction performed on a content provider's application, such as an apprunning on a mobile device. The configuration 200 further illustratesthat relationships 208 connect the nodes 206 and form paths 210 betweennodes 206 that serve to order the nodes 206 by their relation to othernodes 206 connected by the relationships 208. Each path 210 begins on anode and ends on a node. Traversal functions 212 navigate the graph 204by identifying the paths 210. The relationships 208 also can includeproperties 207 that provide various data used for the relationships andcan provide the data from a node 206 to another node 206. An index 214is mapped from the properties 207 of the nodes 206 and relationships208, indexing the nodes and their relationships to provide fastretrieval of data from the graph database 202.

In some embodiments, for example, a relationship 208 can represent aunique user action that correlates two nodes 206. For instance, a node206 representing a flight booking reservation action in a flight bookingcontent provider application and another node 206 representing a rentalcar reservation action in a car rental content provider application canbe connected by a relationship 208. The relationship 208, for example,can represent an action of reserving a flight in the flight bookingcontent provider application. Such a relationship 208 between the twonodes 206 provides that, when a user reserves a flight using the flightbooking application, the relationship between the two nodes causes theuser to be provided with the opportunity (or recommendation) to alsobook a car rental using the car rental application. Properties 207, suchas user information, flight information including travel destination,dates, or other information, or other properties 207 can be provided bythe relationship 208 from the flight application node 206 to the carrental application node 206, enabling the car rental application toreceive pre-filled data to use in providing the recommendation. One ormore graph databases 202 can be created for a single user to provide anynumber of such relationships 208 between actions defined by nodes 206,and the one or more graph databases 202 can be dynamically created basedon user preferences, user behavior or activities such as frequency ofuse of certain actions, or other factors.

In some embodiments, labels are assigned to nodes 206 to identifyco-occurring nodes amongst different occurrences of user graphs 204stored in the graph database 202. For example, a label applied to a node206 in a first graph database 202 can indicate that the node 206represents an action or application in a first domain, and a labelapplied to another node 206 in the first graph database 202 can indicatethat the other node 206 represents an action or application in a seconddomain. Labels can also define other aspects of nodes 206, such as if anode 206 is associated with a user-preferred service. For example, thenode 206 in the first domain can be a music application action and thusbe in a music domain, whereas the other node 206 in the second domaincan be a hotel reservation application action and thus be in a hotelreservation domain and/or a travel domain. The first graph database 202can have multiple nodes 206 labeled with the same domain and multiplenodes 206 labeled with any other domain type. This allows for theco-referencing of nodes in the same domain that provide differentservices or the co-referencing of nodes 206 in different domains.

Relationship types can also be assigned to relationships 208, whichdefine the actions that trigger traversals between nodes. For example, afirst node 206 connected to two other nodes 206 each providing adifferent action recommendation is a service action co-referencing ofthose different actions with respect to the first node 206 as furtherdescribed below.

A second graph database 202 can also be configured such that labels areapplied to nodes 206 to indicate the domains of the nodes 206 andrelationship types applied to relationships 208 between nodes 206 toindicate the relationship actions. This allows for identification ofco-occurring nodes between different graphs 204 related to the sameuser. For example, a specific action performed by the user in twodifferent contexts can create a first node 206 in two different graphs204. The first graph 204 can create a node 206 connected to the firstnode 206 in a domain, while the second graph 204 also creates a node 206connected to the first node 206 that is in the same domain, which can betriggered by the same action or relationship type, but that isassociated with different services or a different content providerconnected to the first node 206. For example, the first node 206 in eachof the first and second graphs 204 can represent a music domainapplication. In the first graph 204, a node 206 can be created andconnected to the first node 206 to provide a recommendation of attendinga concert event for an artist browsed by the user in the musicapplication, where the recommendation is provided by a first contentprovider in a live event domain. In the second graph 204, a node 206 canbe created and connected to the first node 206 to provide arecommendation of attending a concert event for the artist browsed bythe user in the music application, where the recommendation is providedby a second content provider in a live event domain. Practically, thisresults in the user being offered a live event recommendation by twodifferent content providers, such as two different ticket bookingapplications, as a result of the same user action. This is a serviceaction co-occurrence as further described below. Co-referencing andco-occurrence of nodes thus allows for the recommendation of services touser and for the discovery of new services to users.

As described above, graph databases include graphs 204 that includeentities, such as nodes 206 or relationships 208. Entities includeunique, comparable identities that define whether or not two entitiesare equal. An entity is assigned a set of properties 207, each of whichis uniquely identified by its respective property key. Nodes 206 areentities of a graph 204, with the unique attribute of being able toexist in and of itself. A node 206 can be assigned a set of uniquelabels, can have zero or more outgoing relationships 208, and can havezero or more incoming relationships 208. A relationship 208 is an entitythat encodes a directed connection between two nodes 206, namely asource node and a target node. An outgoing relationship is a directedrelationship from the point of view of the relationship's source node.An incoming relationship is a directed relationship from the point ofview of the relationship's target node. A relationship can be assigned arelationship type. A path 210 represents a walk through a property graphand includes a sequence of alternating nodes 206 and relationships 208.The smallest path includes a single node and is designated as an emptypath. A path 210 has a length, which can be an integer that is equal tothe number of relationships 208 in the path 210. A path 210 can be oflength N, such as a length of three, starting from any node andconnecting to various other nodes 206 in the same domain or in otherdomains. It will be understood that a graph 204 can include any numberof nodes 206, relationships 208, and paths 210.

Graphs 204 can also include tokens, which can be nonempty strings ofunicode characters. Labels are tokens assigned to nodes 206 as describedwith respect to various embodiments of this disclosure. Relationshiptypes are tokens assigned to relationships 208 as described with respectto various embodiments of this disclosure. A property key is a tokenthat uniquely identifies an entity's property 207. A property 207 is apair including a property key and a property value and defines aspectsof a node 206, relationship 208, or other entity as described withrespect to various embodiments of this disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example entity data relationship model 300 inaccordance with various embodiments of this disclosure. As shown in FIG.3, the model 300 includes an entity 302. As described in thisdisclosure, the entity 302 can be a node 206, a relationship 208, orother entity in a graph database. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the entity302 is surrounded by data, such as user feedback 304, device data 306,user profile data 308, one or more application signals and contents 310,and inferred knowledge 312. The data provided to the entity 302 providesfor entity definitions and entity understanding, enables the entity toderive relations to other entities, and can define entity graphs. Directuser feedback 304 provides the entity 302 with knowledge of userpreferences, such as if a user indicates that a service recommendationprovided to the user via the user's electronic device 101 is not desiredby the user or if a particular service is preferred over anotherservices.

The entity 302 can also collect data regarding user usage patterns andbehaviors from the device data 306 and the user profile data 308. Devicedata 306 can include data from a user's electronic device 101, such asinstalled applications, frequency of use of applications or services onthe device, device model or specifications, a geolocation of the device,or other data. For example, the device data 306 can affect whether aparticular service is offered or recommended to a user based on whichapplications are installed or used frequently. In some embodiments, theservices from applications not installed or infrequently used may not berecommended, or the services from applications not installed orinfrequently used may be recommended to educate the user about availableand potentially alternative services. The device model or specificationscan, in some embodiments, be used to filter out services that are notsupported by the device. A geolocation of the device can be used toprioritize services to recommend to the user based on the geolocation ofthe device. For example, if, based on the geolocation of the user, thereare more drivers of one rideshare or taxi service (e.g., UBER) nearbythan drivers from another rideshare or taxi service (e.g., LYFT), arecommendation to use the first service (e.g., UBER) can be prioritized.User profile data 308 can provide data on user settings and preferences,user demographics, and other user profile information to assist withtailoring recommendations for the user.

Application signals and contents 310 provide the entity 302 with datafrom applications, such as signals related to a user action in anapplication and the content associated with the action. The entity 302also can receive inferred knowledge 312 provided from sources such asuser activity. For example, if a user swipes away or dismisses arecommendation displayed on the user's device, it can be inferred thatthe user is not interested in recommendations for that particularservice. The data surrounding the entity 302 enables the creation ofrelations between entities to curate and add actionable instances andleads to relevant and focused recommendations for individual users.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example personalized recommendation model 400 inaccordance with various embodiments of this disclosure. A personalizedrecommendation 402 is provided to a user in accordance with variousembodiments of this disclosure. The personalized recommendation 402 canbe, for example, presented in a host application of an electronic device101. In some embodiments, a host application can be a display surface,such as an intelligent assistant or digital assistance voice client, anintelligent assistant or digital assistant home user interface, arecommendation user interface, etc. A host application can also bedisplayed as a home screen on the electronic device 101 that interactswith other applications installed in the memory 130 of the electronicdevice 101 and with outside services, such as services offered by mobilenetwork service providers, device manufacturers, cloud computingservices, or other services. The personalized recommendation 402 isbuilt using a plurality of data, such as profile data 404, history data406, context data 408, content 410, and application signals 412. Thedata 404-412 can include any of the data 304-312 described above withrespect to FIG. 3.

The profile data 404 provides data related to the profile of a user,such as user preferences and settings. The history data 406 can providehistory-related data of the user or the device, such as prior use ofapplications or services, refusal of the user to accept or interact withservices or recommendations, or other data concerning user or devicehistory. Context data 408 can include data related to the context of asituation, such as geolocation of a device, current use of applicationsor services, or other context data. The content 410 can include contentprovided by applications or services for which the personalizedrecommendation 402 is associated. For example, if the personalizedrecommendation 402 is for a restaurant booking application, a userinterface for the restaurant booking application can be provided fromthe content provider for the application as part of the personalizedrecommendation 402. In some embodiments, the user interface can bedisplayed in the host application as part of the display of thepersonalized recommendation 402. The application signals 412 providesignals for triggering and creating the personalized recommendation 402and can provide the signals for initiating the service or applicationoffered by the personalized recommendation. In some embodiments,activation or acceptance of the personalized recommendation 402 willallow for fulfillment of the service in the host application, open thecontent provider application to fulfill the service, redirect the userto the content provider's website to fulfill the service, or other meansof fulfilling the service.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of an example graph database creation andupdate process 500 in accordance with various embodiments of thisdisclosure. FIG. 5 does not limit the scope of this disclosure to anyparticular embodiments. While the flowchart depicts a series ofsequential steps, unless explicitly stated, no inference should be drawnfrom that sequence regarding specific order of performance, performanceof steps or portions thereof serially rather than concurrently or in anoverlapping manner, or performance of the steps depicted exclusivelywithout the occurrence of intervening or intermediate steps. For ease ofexplanation, the process 500 is described with respect to the processor120 of any, or a combination, of the electronic devices 101, 102, or104, or the server 106. However, the process 500 can be used with anyother suitable device(s) and in any suitable system.

At block 502, the processor obtains device and user data associated witha user. At block 504, the processor creates an initial graph databasebased on the obtained device and user data. In some embodiments, ifthere is no or little useful device and user data, a default graphdatabase can be created for the user to provide a starting point forcustomization and to provide default application or service suggestionsto the user. Also, in some embodiments, if there is a certain amount ofuseful device and user data, the initial graph database can be initiallycustomized according to the device and user data. Further, in someembodiments, the device and user data may include user profile data,user feedback data, device model and specifications, history data,context data, and/or inferred knowledge that can be included in theinitial graph database.

At block 506, the processor monitors user activity and a device state ofthe user device. At decision block 508, the processor determines if newuser activity or frequent activity is detected from monitoring the useractivity. New user activity can include activities such as using anapplication for the first time, accepting a new cross-domainrecommendation provided to the user, or browsing content on a contentprovider application. Frequent user activity can include activities suchas accepting a particular recommendation at a certain frequency,frequent use of particular applications, or frequent browsing of contentin content provider applications.

If the processor identifies new user activity or frequent user activityat decision block 508, the process 500 moves to block 510. At block 510,the graph database is updated based on the user activity. For example,if a user frequently uses a sports news application, one or more nodesrelated to this domain can be added to one or more graphs to the graphdatabase. Relationships can also be added to the graphs, such ascreating relationships between the newly-added sports news applicationnodes and related nodes, such as event ticketing applications, in orderto provide sports event ticketing recommendations to the user when theuser uses the sports news application. The process 500 moves to decisionblock 512 from block 510. If the processor does not detect new orfrequent user activity at decision block 508, the process 500 moves todecision block 512.

At decision block 512, the processor determines if there is a detectedchange in device state. A change in device state can include installingor uninstalling applications, a change in the geolocation of the device,a change in device bandwidth, a network change, or other changes. If theprocessor detects a device state change at decision block 512, theprocess 500 moves to block 514. At block 514, the processor updates thegraph database based on the detected device state change. For example,if the device state change indicates that the device has anewly-installed application, one or more user graphs in the graphdatabase can be updated to include nodes pertaining to thenewly-installed application. The one or more user graphs can also beupdated to include other nodes for applications or services in the sameor related domains as the newly-installed application but that are notnecessarily installed on the device. The process 500 then moves to endblock 516. If the processor does not detect a device state change atdecision block 512, the process 500 also moves to end block 516.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example cross-domain recommendation queryingsystem 600 in accordance with various embodiments of this disclosure.The system 600 includes a host application 602. In some embodiments, thehost application 602 can be displayed as a home screen on the electronicdevice 101 that interacts with other applications installed in thememory 130 of the electronic device 101 and with outside services, suchas services offered by mobile network service providers, devicemanufacturers, cloud computing services, or other services. The hostapplication 602 can be executed by the processor 120. The hostapplication 602 can also provide voice recognition and voice assistantservices to users. The host application 602 includes a content andapplication signals analyzer 604 that receives and analyzes content andsignals from content provider applications 606. As illustrated in FIG.6, the host application 602 can send a parameterized content uniformresource identifier (“URI”) 608 that identifies a particular resourceand requests content from that resource. Content provider applications606 can be applications installed on the electronic device 101 or can becontent provider servers or other storage or communication locations forcontent providers.

In response to the parameterized content URI 608, a content providerapplication provides content and application signals 610. In someembodiments, the content and application signals 610 can be transmittedto the host application 602 without the host application 602 firstsending a URI to a content provider application 606. The content andapplication signals analyzer 604 processes the content and applicationsignals 610 and generates, from the content and application signals 610,a description JavaScript Object Notation (“JSON”) 612. The descriptionJSON 612 is provided to a personalization service interface 614 of thehost application 602. The personalization service interface 614determines what actions were performed by the content providerapplications 606, and the content associated therewith, and builds aquery 616 to send to an entity graph 618. The entity graph 618 can bemanaged by a graph database and can be either on the same device as thehost application 602 or on a separate device, such as the server 106.

The query 616 includes information related to the actions performed bythe content provider applications 606, which allows the entity graph 618to return relevant cross-domain relations 620 to the host application602, such as cross-domain actions to be recommended to the user. Thecross-domain relations 620 can also include request information thatallows the host application 602 to build another query to send to thecontent provider applications 606, such as in another parameterizedcontent URI 608, to request content information for the cross-domainrelations 620 provided by the entity graph 618. The personalizationservice interface 614 can use the information provided in thecross-domain relations 620 to update one or more entities 622 and canpresent the entities 622 as recommended actions, which may be in-domainor cross-domain, to the user within the host application 602 or outsidethe host application 602, such as in another screen of the electronicdevice 101, a content provider application 606, or other locations.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of an example cross-domain recommendationprocess 700 in accordance with various embodiments of this disclosure.FIG. 7 does not limit the scope of this disclosure to any particularembodiments. While the flowchart depicts a series of sequential steps,unless explicitly stated, no inference should be drawn from thatsequence regarding specific order of performance, performance of stepsor portions thereof serially rather than concurrently or in anoverlapping manner, or performance of the steps depicted exclusivelywithout the occurrence of intervening or intermediate steps. For ease ofexplanation, the process 700 is described with respect to the processor120 of any, or a combination, of the electronic devices 101, 102, or104, or the server 106. However, the process 700 can be used with anyother suitable device(s) and in any suitable system.

At block 702, the processor receives one or more notifications of atleast one user activity in a content provider application. In someembodiments, the one or more notifications can include applicationcontent and signals provided by one or more content providerapplications. At block 704, the processor builds at least one querybased on the one or more notifications. In some embodiments, the querycan include information relating to application content and signals withrespect to the user activity and can include a description JSON 612representing the content and signals. At block 706, the processorprovides the at least one query to a graph database that includes one ormore user graphs. In some embodiments, the graph database can be storedlocally. In other embodiments, the query can be transmitted to a remotedevice, such as the server 106, which stores the graph database orotherwise has access to the graph database.

At decision block 708, the processor determines if there is across-domain action for the user activity in the graph database. If so,the process 700 moves to block 710. At block 710, the processor receivesat least one cross-domain action from the graph database. At block 712,the processor instructs an application, such as a host application, todisplay at least one cross-domain recommendation based on the at leastone cross-domain action. It will be understood that this is but oneexample, and the recommended action could be an in-domain action. Forexample, a user activity of browsing music in a music player applicationmay trigger an in-domain recommendation for buying music from similarartists in the same application. The process then moves to end block714. If the processor does not determine that there is a cross-domainaction in the graph database at decision block 708, the process 700moves to block 716. At block 716, the processor receives a notificationthat there is no cross-domain action for the user activity, and theprocess 700 then moves to end block 714.

FIG. 8 illustrates a sequence diagram of an example cross-domainrecommendation process 800 in accordance with various embodiments ofthis disclosure. For ease of explanation, the process 800 is describedwith respect to the processor 120 of any, or a combination, of theelectronic devices 101, 102, or 104, or the server 106. However, theprocess 800 can be used with any other suitable device(s) and in anysuitable system.

As illustrated in FIG. 8, various steps of the process 800 are performedby a user 802, a host application 804, a content provider application806, and a graph database 808. At step 810, the user 802 performs one ormore activities using the content provider application 806, such asbrowsing content, reserving travel plans, restaurant reservations, eventtickets, or other reservations types, consuming multimedia content,engaging in social media, or other activities. At step 812, the contentprovider application 806 transmits one or more notifications to the hostapplication 804. The one or more notifications include contentinformation, such as data and user interface information, related to theuser activity performed in step 810.

At step 814, the host application 804 builds an action query based onthe data received in the one or more notifications from the contentprovider application 806. In some embodiments, the action query caninclude details relating to the user activity and the contentsassociated therewith. For example, if the user activity includes bookinga restaurant reservation, the query can include the reservation type,the restaurant name, the restaurant location, the date and time of thereservation, or other information. At step 816, the host application 804transmits the action query to the graph database 808. In someembodiments, the graph database 808 can be local to the host application804 or can be remote, such as on the server 106. In some embodiments,the server 106 can transmit a query to the graph database 808, such aswhen the graph database 808 is not stored on the server 106.

At step 818, the graph database 808 returns cross-domain actions andcontent query request information. The cross-domain actions are actionsrelated to the user activity included in the action query transmitted tothe graph database 808. For example, if the user activity performed instep 810 was booking a restaurant reservation, the cross-domain actionsconnected to a node in the graph database 808 for booking a restaurantreservation can include reserving a taxi to transport the user to therestaurant at the designated date and time, flight options if therestaurant location is a certain distance away from the known userinformation or the geolocation of the user at the time of the restaurantreservation booking, setting up a reminder for the restaurantreservation, or creating a social media post regarding the restaurantreservation. The content query request information returned with thecross-domain actions can include information for the host application804 to use in requesting cross-domain actions from the appropriatecontent provider application 806. For example, returning a flightbooking cross-domain action in response to the restaurant booking useractivity can include the types of information used to book a flight,such as location information and date and time information. Since thehost application 804 may have provided location and date and timeinformation to the graph database 808 in the action query, thisinformation for a flight booking can already be pre-filled as part ofthe content query request information returned to the host application804.

At step 820, the host application 804 builds a content query using thecross-domain actions and content query request information received fromthe graph database 808. In some embodiments, the processor 120 or theserver 106 can build the content query. The content query includesinformation for requesting content and display specification from acontent provider application 806 with respect to the cross-domainactions to recommend to the user 802. At step 822, the host application804 transmits the content query to the content provider application 806.At step 824, the content provider application 806 provides the requestedcontent and display specification. The display specification defines howthe cross-domain content and recommendation is to be displayed in thehost application 804. The host application can generate one or morecross-domain recommendations based on the content and displayspecification. At step 826, the host application displays the content asrecommendations for the user 802.

In some embodiments, the host application 804 displays therecommendation according to the content provider application's displayspecification so as to provide the user with consistent visualpresentation of contents between the content provider application 806and the recommendation displayed in the host application 804. Multiplerecommendations for a single user activity can be displayed by the hostapplication 804, providing multiple options for the user to choose from.In some embodiments, the cross-domain recommendations can includerecommendations for applications or services that are not currentlyinstalled on the user's device. Also, in some embodiments, interactingwith a recommendation displayed on the content provider application 806causes the content provider application 806 to open or directs the userto the content provider's website to complete the action. In otherembodiments, the cross-domain action can be completed without leavingthe host application.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example cross-domain service co-reference event900 in accordance with various embodiments of this disclosure. The nodesin FIG. 9 can be included in a graph database operating on any of theelectronic devices 101, 102, 104 or the server 106. Serviceco-referencing refers to when two or more nodes have common cross-domainactions (nodes) connected by different paths. As illustrated in FIG. 9,a content provider application function node 902 is connected byrelationship paths to cross-domain action nodes 904-910. Thecross-domain action nodes 904-910 include a first domain recommendationnode 904, a second domain recommendation node 906, another second domainrecommendation node 908, and a third domain recommendation node 910.

As an example, if the content provider application function node 902represents a sports event booking application reservation function, thefirst domain recommendation node 904 can represent a hotel reservationapplication function, the second domain recommendation node 906 canrepresent a sports news application function, the other second domainrecommendation node 908 can represent a sports video streamingapplication function, and the third domain recommendation node 910 canrepresent a restaurant reservation application function. Each of thenodes 904-910 provides one or more recommendations for services inmultiple domains and is similarly connected to the content providerapplication function node 902. This provides that, when the userperforms the content application function of node 902, the user can bepresented with recommendations from each of the nodes 904-910. Thus,service co-referencing allows for a single user action to triggerseveral recommendations across any number of domains.

FIG. 10 illustrates a diagram 1000 of an example cross-domain serviceco-occurrence in accordance with various embodiments of this disclosure.The diagram 1000 includes two separate user graphs 1002 and 1004. Thegraphs 1002 and 1004 can each be included as separate graphs in a graphdatabase operating on any of the electronic devices 101, 102, 104 or theserver 106. Service co-occurrence refers to when the same cross-domainactions occur in two or more user graphs. Since each user has one ormore unique cross-domain relation entity graphs, there is anabove-chance frequency of the occurrence of the same cross-domain action(with exact application fulfillment) in two or more user graphs.

As illustrated in FIG. 10, a content provider application function node1006 in the graph 1002 is connected by relationship paths to a node 1008representing a recommendation in a first domain from a first serviceprovider and to a node 1010 representing a recommendation in a seconddomain. The graph 1004 includes the same content provider applicationfunction node 1006 as in the first graph 1002. Based on previous useractivity or other learned factors, such as if the user often performsthe content provider application function represented by the nodes 1006but frequently chooses different service providers within the samedomain for the same service, two user graphs 1002 and 1004 with the samenode 1006 are created. In some embodiments, a default graph can becreated that includes the node 1006, while another graph including thenode 1006 is set up based on user actions.

The content provider application function node 1006 in graph 1004 isconnected by relationship paths to a node 1012 representing arecommendation in a first domain from a second service provider and to anode 1014 representing a recommendation in a third domain. For example,if the nodes 1006 represent an action of booking a restaurantreservation, the graph 1002 provides a recommendation to call an UBERdriver to transport the user to the restaurant from the node 1008. Theuser activity of booking a restaurant reservation also causes the node1006 in the graph 1004 to trigger its associated recommendations, withthe node 1012 providing a recommendation to call a LYFT driver. Thus,there is a co-occurrence of the same type of cross-domain action—callinga driver—triggered by the same action in different user graphs stored inthe graph database. Service co-occurrence allows for users to bepresented with multiple options for services and also can providerecommendations for services from service providers unknown to the user.

FIG. 11 illustrates a flowchart of an example cross-domain serviceco-occurrence process 1100 in accordance with various embodiments ofthis disclosure. FIG. 11 does not limit the scope of this disclosure toany particular embodiments. While the flowchart depicts a series ofsequential steps, unless explicitly stated, no inference should be drawnfrom that sequence regarding specific order of performance, performanceof steps or portions thereof serially rather than concurrently or in anoverlapping manner, or performance of the steps depicted exclusivelywithout the occurrence of intervening or intermediate steps. For ease ofexplanation, the process 1100 is described with respect to the processor120 of any, or a combination, of the electronic devices 101, 102, or104, or the server 106. However, the process 1100 can be used with anyother suitable device(s) and in any suitable system.

At block 1102, the processor receives a notification of user activity ina content provider application. At decision block 1104, the processordetermines whether the specific user activity is represented by nodes intwo or more graphs in a graph database. If not, the process 1100 movesto block 1112. If so, the process 1100 moves to block 1106. At block1106, the processor retrieves recommendations based on the specific useraction from each user graph. At decision block 1108, the processordetermines whether any of the retrieved recommendations from the two ormore user graphs include the same action in the same domain fromdifferent services. For example, if a recommendation from a first usergraph is a recommendation to call an UBER driver and anotherrecommendation from a second user graph is a recommendation to call aLYFT driver, there is a service action co-occurrence.

If the processor determines there is a service action co-occurrence atdecision block 1108, the process 1100 moves to block 1110. At block1110, the processor can rank the services in the same domain but fromdifferent providers based on factors such as previous user behavior,such as historically choosing one service provider over the other,service availability (such as if one service has a larger presence inthe user's current geographic area), or other factors. The process 1100then moves to block 1112. If the processor determines that therecommendations do not include the same action in the same domain fromdifferent services at decision block 1108, the process 1100 moves toblock 1112. At block 1112, the processor presents the recommendationsretrieved at block 1106 based on user preferences/behavior, devicestate, or a current state of recommended services. This presentation canprovide a ranking of available services based on the user profile,device data, history, and other factors. The process 1100 then ends atend block 1114.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example graph database update process 1200 inaccordance with various embodiments of this disclosure. As described inthis disclosure, graphs managed by the graph database can be updatedbased on learning that is performed by the systems disclosed here. Forinstance, a feedback mechanism existing between relational intelligencein conjunction with user actions obtained through application signalsand device information can derive a user graph that evolves dynamically.The feedback mechanism provides for relationship confidence, whichprovides that recommendations are provided in a unique order for everyuser based on the user's usage pattern of particular content providerapplications, services, or features. The feedback mechanism alsoprovides for relationship additions or other changes, such as addingcross-domain relationships for a particular node dynamically based on auser's new activities or deleting nodes or relationships based on auser's non-use of applications, services, or features. The feedbackmechanism provides a capability to provide preference learning andderive frequency quotients.

As illustrated in FIG. 12, a node 1202 representing a content providerapplication function in a user graph is connected by paths to a firstrecommendation node 1204 and a second. recommendation node 1206. In aparticular recommendation event as illustrated in FIG. 12, the userselects the first recommendation and does not select the secondrecommendation. A result of the chosen recommendation, along with deviceand user information, is analyzed at a block 1208. In some embodiments,the server 106 analyzes the result and device and user information. Inother embodiments, the user device analyzes the result and the deviceand user information, such as by using the host application on the userdevice. The analysis of the result and of the device and userinformation can, in some situations, trigger an update process of theuser graph stored in the graph database. New or frequent actions by auser can trigger adding nodes or relationships between nodes in the usergraph, while non-use or direct indication of unwanted actions cantrigger deletion of nodes or relationships from the user graph.Additions or deletions from the user graph can be based on thresholds orother methods, such when a single instance of a user declining to use arecommended service does not necessarily cause a deletion.

The example illustrated in FIG. 12 shows an update to the user graphbased on the user's selection. As a result of the analysis of the userchoice and the device and user information, new nodes 1210 and 1212 areadded to the user graph, representing new recommendations that can betriggered from a user choosing to perform the action of the firstrecommendation of node 1204. These new nodes 1210 and 1212 are addedbased on the user selecting the first recommendation of the node 1204,and the graph can now offer additional services related to the action ofthe node 1204. The user graph in FIG. 12 is also updated to delete thenode 1206 representing the second recommendation. Such a deletion of anode or relationship can occur when the user frequently does not choosethe recommendation.

FIG. 13 illustrates a flowchart of an example graph database updateprocess 1300 in accordance with various embodiments of this disclosure.FIG. 13 does not limit the scope of this disclosure to any particularembodiments. While the flowchart depicts a series of sequential steps,unless explicitly stated, no inference should be drawn from thatsequence regarding specific order of performance, performance of stepsor portions thereof serially rather than concurrently or in anoverlapping manner, or performance of the steps depicted exclusivelywithout the occurrence of intervening or intermediate steps. For ease ofexplanation, the process 1300 is described with respect to the processor120 of any, or a combination, of the electronic devices 101, 102, or104, or the server 106. However, the process 1300 can be used with anyother suitable device(s) and in any suitable system.

At block 1302, the processor presents one or more recommendations, suchas directly to a user or to a host application (which allows the hostapplication to display the one or more recommendations). At block 1304,the processor receives a user selection of a recommendation from the oneor more recommendations. At block 1306, the processor analyzes thedevice data and the user data. At decision block 1308, the processordetermines if the selected recommendation is a newly-selected orfrequently-selected recommendation. A frequently-selected recommendationcan be determined by the processor based on a threshold, by usingheuristic techniques, or by monitoring a number of uses of therecommendation over a period of time. If so, the process 1300 moves toblock 1310. At block 1310, the processor adds at least one newrecommendation based on the selected representation to the graphdatabase. For instance, if the selected recommendation is an action forbooking tickets for an event, a new recommendation can be added forcreating a social media post based on booking an event. The newly-addedrecommendation can be triggered upon adding the new recommendation tothe graph database, or the new recommendation can be triggered when thesame action as in block 1304 is chosen again at another time. Theprocess 1300 moves from block 1310 to decision block 1312. If theprocessor determines that there is no newly-selected orfrequently-selected recommendation at decision block 1308, the process1300 also moves to decision block 1312.

At decision block 1312, the processor determines if a presentedrecommendation from among the one or more recommendations presented inblock 1302 was not selected. If not, the process 1300 moves to end block1318. If so, the process moves to decision block 1314. At decision block1314, the processor determines if the unselected recommendation isfrequently unselected or otherwise is undesirable, such as if the userindicates that the user no longer wishes to see the recommendation. Thiscan be inferred, such as when the user swipes the recommendation away onthe display of the user device, or can be explicit, such as when theuser specifically selects an option directly indicating that the user nolonger wishes to see the recommendation.

If the processor does not determine that the unselected recommendationis frequently unselected or otherwise is undesirable at decision block1314, the process 1300 moves to end block 1318. If the processor doesdetermine that the unselected recommendation is frequently unselected orotherwise is undesirable at decision block 1314, the process 1300 movesto block 1316. At block 1316, the processor removes the unselectedrecommendation and any applicable relationships from the graph database.The process then ends at end block 1318.

FIGS. 14A and 14B illustrate an example user graph 1400 in accordancewith various embodiments of this disclosure. In particular, FIGS. 14Aand 14B represent one interconnected user graph 1400 providing variouscross-domain relationships. It will be understood that the graph 1400 ismerely an example and does not limit the scope of this disclosure to anyparticular embodiments. As illustrated in FIG. 14A, a node representinga sports application is connected to other applications in the domain,such as an ESPN application node 1404 and a node 1406 for a sportsapplication called THESCORE. The application node 1404 includes outgoingrelationships to a sports news node 1408 and a sports scores node 1410.The application node 1406 includes outgoing relationships to a gameinformation node 1412 and a league node 1414. As illustrates in FIG.14A, the nodes 1408-1414 represent features provided by the applicationsrepresented by the nodes 1404 and 1406 in a sports domain represented bya sport domain node 1402.

The sport domain node 1402 also includes outgoing relationships to acommercial node 1416 and an event node 1418. The commercial node 1416 istriggered by browsing within the sport domain. For example, browsingsports teams on a user device can trigger the commercial node 1416,providing a commercial (either related to sports or not) to the user.The event node 1418 can also be triggered from the sport domain node1402, which can trigger a recommendation of a sports event to the user.A music domain node 1420 can also trigger a recommendation provided bythe event node 1418, such as if a user is viewing music-related contentor using a music domain application. The music node 1420 has an outgoingrelationship to the commercial node 1416 that can be triggered from abrowsing action.

The music domain node 1420 also includes an outgoing relationship withan event reservation node 1422 that can be triggered from a browsingaction in the music domain. The event reservation node 1422 can providea recommendation to book a reservation for an event, such as a musicevent if the node 1422 is triggered from the node 1420. The eventreservation node 1422 has an outgoing relationship to the event node1418, which can be triggered by either buying (or placing tickets in anonline shopping cart (“InCarted”)) or by browsing information concerningan event. The event reservation node 1422 includes outgoingrelationships to a social media node 1424 and a cab node 1426, which canboth be triggered when a user makes a reservation for an event. Thesocial media node 1424 provides a recommendation for the user to createa social media post regarding the event reservation. The cab node 1426provides a recommendation for calling a cab or taxi to transport theuser to the event. The cab node 1426 similarly includes an incomingrelationship from a travel reservation node, which can be triggered by auser booking a travel reservation.

The graph 1400 further includes a restaurant reservation node 1430. Therestaurant reservation node is illustrated as including two incomingrelationships from a restaurant node 1432 having relationship types“InCarted” and “Browsed.” The restaurant reservation node 1430 can betriggered by browsing information regarding a restaurant or purchasingan item, such as take away food, from a restaurant on a user device. Therestaurant reservation node 1430 also includes an outgoing relationshipto the restaurant node 1432 having a relationship type of“ReservationFor.” The restaurant node 1432 has outgoing relationships tothe cab node 1426 having a relationship type of “Reserved,” to thesocial media node 1424 also having a relationship type of “Reserved,”and to a credit card node 1434 having a relationship type of “InCarted.”The credit card node 1434 provides a recommendation to use a credit cardfor items being purchased from a restaurant when triggered from therestaurant node 1432. The credit card node 1434 also includes anincoming relationship from a product node 1436 with an “InCarted”relationship. The product node 1436 includes two outgoing relationshipsto the commercial node 1416, which can be triggered by browsing orpurchasing a product.

As illustrated in FIG. 14B, the event reservation node 1422, the travelreservation node 1428, and the restaurant reservation node 1430 includeother incoming and/or outgoing relationships. It will be understood thatthe graph 1400 is one interconnected graph, and the connections to theevent reservation node 1422, the travel reservation node 1428, and therestaurant reservation node 1430 illustrated in FIG. 14A remain intactwhen referring to FIG. 14B. As illustrated in FIG. 14B, the eventreservation node 1422 includes outgoing relationships to a reminder node1438 and a hotel node 1440, which can both be triggered from reservingan event. The reminder node 1438 can provide a recommendation to createa reminder for the reserved event, and the hotel node 1440 can provide arecommendation to book a hotel near the event. The event reservationnode 1422 also includes outgoing relationships to the restaurantreservation node 1430 and a travel node 1442 both including the“Reserved” relationship type, which can provide recommendations to booka restaurant reservation or to book travel plans, respectively, inresponse to booking the event reservation.

The travel node 1442 includes two additional incoming relationships fromthe travel reservation node 1428, which can be triggered by eitherbrowsing or purchasing travel reservations. The travel reservation node1428 also includes an outgoing relationship to the restaurantreservation node 1430, which can be triggered when a travel reservationis reserved. The travel node 1442 also includes outgoing relationshipsto a train node 1444, a flight node 1446, and a bus node 1448. Theseoutgoing relationships from the node 1442 to the nodes 1444, 1446, and1448 include a relationship type of “TravelFor,” indicating a selectedmeans of travel by a user. Each of the nodes 1444, 1446, and 1448includes an outgoing relationship to the travel reservation node 1428having a relationship type of “ReservationFor,” indicating that thetravel reservation node 1428 can be triggered when one or moretransportation reservations are made.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example user graph 1500 in accordance withvarious embodiments of this disclosure. As illustrated in FIG. 15, thegraph 1500 includes actions in a music domain 1502. The actions can leadto recommendations in a concert or event domain 1504 from the musicdomain 1502, which further leads to other domains such as atransportation domain 1506, a navigation domain 1508, a restaurantsdomain 1510, a lodging domain 1512, a travel domain 1514, or otherdomains. The nodes in the graph 1500 are illustrated in this example asbeing linked by service events shown in dashed arrows and serviceactions shown in solid arrows. Service events represent connectionswithin the same service such as the same application, while serviceactions represent connections between services.

The music domain 1502 includes a song node 1516 that represents a userlistening to a song, “Timber” by artist “Pitbull” in this example. Thesong node 1516 is connected by a service action to a like/dislike/sharenode 1518. The song node 1516 is also connected to a plurality of othernodes by service event connections. The song node 1516 is connected toan album node 1532 that provides the name of the album that includes thesong “Timber” and information related to the album to the user. The songnode 1516 is also connected by service events to artist nodes 1522 and1524, representing the artists Ke$ha and Pitbull, respectively, as the“Timber” song includes two artists. The Ke$ha. artist node 1522 isconnected by service events to Ke$ha album nodes 1526, 1528, and 1530for the album titles “Warrior,” “Rainbow,” and “Gemini,” respectively.The Pitbull artist node 1524 is connected by service events to albumnodes 1532, 1534, and 1536 for the album titles “Meltdown,” “ClimateChange,” and “Global Warming,” respectively.

The Ke$ha artist node 1522 and the Pitbull. artist node 1524 areconnected by service actions to a cross-domain node 1538 for a Ke$haconcert event in the event domain 1504, providing a recommendation to auser viewing information on Ke$ha or Pitbull to view the Ke$ha concertevent. The event node 1538 is connected by a service action to an eventtickets node 1540, which is connected by a “buy” service event to acheckout node 1542, allowing a user to buy tickets for the Ke$ha concertevent. The checkout node 1542 is connected by a service action to a taxinode 1544 in the transportation domain 1506. The Ke$ha concert eventnode 1538 is also connected by a service action to a like/dislike/sharenode 1546 and by a service action to an event reminder node 1548.

The event reminder node 1548 is connected by service actions to aplurality of nodes in other domains. The event reminder node 1548 isconnected by a service action to a restaurants node 1550 in therestaurants domain 1510. The restaurants node 1550 is connected byservice actions to the taxi node 1544 in the transportation domain 1506and a navigation node 1552 in the navigation domain 1508. The eventreminder node 1548 is also connected by a service action to a flightsnode 1554 in the travel domain 1514 and to a hotels node 1556 in thelodging domain 1512. The hotels node 1556 is connected by a serviceevent to a checkout node 1558 in the lodging domain 1512.

FIG. 16 illustrates an example user graph 1600 showing exampleproperties in accordance with various embodiments of this disclosure.The example properties shown in FIG. 16 provide examples for the typesof data that can be passed between nodes to fulfill actions. The graph1600 includes a travel/holiday recommendations node 1602 that leads to aseries of nodes providing recommendations related to traveling. Thetravel/holiday recommendations node 1602 is connected to a picnicspots/location/beach node 1604 that provides recommendations concerningpicnic spots, beaches, or other locations near where the user istraveling. The travel/holiday recommendations node 1602 can provideproperties 1606 to other nodes that include place details concerningwhere the user is traveling, or other information. The picnicspots/location/beach node 1604 is connected to a plurality of othernodes such as a call/email node 1608 that includes properties 1607 likeplace details or other data and that can be triggered by a Call/Emailaction.

The picnic spots/location/beach node 1604 is also connected to a placeinformation node 1610, a quick shopping node 1612, and a navigate node1614, which are all passed properties 1616 including locationinformation concerning the travel destination. The information node1610, the quick shopping node 1612, and the navigate node 1614 can betriggered by a Find_PlaceInfo action, a Quick Purchase action, or aStartNavigation action, respectively. The quick shopping node 1612 canalso be passed properties 1618 that can include weather information andrelevant context information. The picnic spots/location/beach node 1604is also connected to a reservations/tickets node 1620, which is providedproperties 1622 including reservation type and relevant context data andcan be triggered by a Make_Reservation action. The picnicspots/location/beach node 1604 is also connected to a weatherinformation node 1624, which is provided properties 1626 including cityand geolocation information and can be triggered by a Find_Weatheraction.

The travel/holiday recommendations node 1602 is also connected to acity/country node 1628 that is provided properties 1630 like placedetails and other information. The city/country node 1628 is connectedto a shopping node 1632 that is provided properties 1634 like placetype, weather information, relevant context information, or other dataand can be triggered by a Quick_Purchase action. The city/country node1628 is further connected to a cruise node 1636 that is providedproperties 1638 like reservation type, number of people, cruise type,relevant context information, or other data and that can be triggered bya Find_CruiseDestinations action. The city/country node 1628 is furtherconnected to a car rentals node 1640 that is provided properties 1642like duration, car type, relevant context information, or other data andthat can be triggered by a Book_Car action. The city/country node 1628is further connected to a restaurants node 1644 that is providedproperties 1646 like restaurant names, cuisine information, relevantcontext information, or other data and that can be triggered. by aFind_Restaurants action. The city/country node 1628 is further connectedto a local shopping malls information node 1648 that is providedproperties 1650 like location information, relevant context information,or other data and that can be triggered by a Find_ShoppingMalls action.

The city/country node 1628 is further connected to a hotel node 1652, aflights node 1654, and a local attractions node 1656 that are eachprovided properties 1658 like reservation type, number of people,relevant context information, or other data. The hotel node 1652 and theflights node 1654 can be triggered by a Book_Hotel action and aReserve_Flight action, respectively. The local attractions node 1656 isconnected to a tickets node 1660 that is provided properties 1662 likereservation type, number of people, relevant context information, orother data and that can be triggered by a Buy_Tickets action. The localattractions node 1656 is further connected to an attraction details node1664 that is provided properties 1666 like location information,relevant context, or other data and that can be triggered by aShow_MoreInfo action.

Although this disclosure has been described with an exemplaryembodiment, various changes and modifications may be suggested to oneskilled in the art. It is intended that this disclosure encompass suchchanges and modifications as fall within the scope of the appendedclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic device, comprising: a memory; andat least one processor coupled to the memory, wherein the at least oneprocessor is configured to: receive one or more notifications of atleast one user activity in a content provider application; build atleast one query based on the one or more notifications; provide the atleast one query to a database; receive at least one cross-domain actionfrom the database; generate at least one cross-domain recommendationbased on the cross-domain action; and instruct an application to displaythe at least one cross-domain recommendation.
 2. The electronic deviceof claim 1, wherein the database is a graph database.
 3. The electronicdevice of claim 2, wherein the at least one cross-domain recommendationincludes two or more co-occurring cross-domain recommendations from oneor more graphs in the graph database.
 4. The electronic device of claim2, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to provideinformation to update the graph database, wherein the informationincludes one or more user activities in one or more content providerapplications.
 5. The electronic device of claim 4, wherein theinformation to update the graph database causes the graph database toadd one or more nodes to the graph database, wherein the one or morenodes are defined by one or more action results in the one or morecontent provider applications.
 6. The electronic device of claim 4,wherein the information to update the graph database causes the graphdatabase to delete one or more nodes from the graph database.
 7. Theelectronic device of claim 1, wherein the at least one cross-domainrecommendation is displayed on a host application surface in accordancewith a display specification provided by the content providerapplication.
 8. A method, comprising: receiving one or morenotifications of at least one user activity in a content providerapplication; building at least one query based on the one or morenotifications; providing the at least one query to a database; receivingat least one cross-domain action from the database; generating at leastone cross-domain recommendation based on the cross-domain action; andinstructing an application to display the at least one cross-domainrecommendation.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the database is agraph database.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least onecross-domain recommendation includes two or more co-occurringcross-domain recommendations from one or more graphs in the graphdatabase.
 11. The method of claim 9, further comprising providinginformation to update the graph database, wherein the informationincludes one or more user activities in one or more content providerapplications.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the information toupdate the graph database causes the graph database to add one or morenodes to the graph database, wherein the one or more nodes are definedby one or more action results in the one or more content providerapplications.
 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the information toupdate the graph database causes the graph database to delete one ormore nodes from the graph database.
 14. The method of claim 8, whereinthe at least one cross-domain recommendation is displayed on a hostapplication surface in accordance with a display specification providedby the content provider application.
 15. A non-transitory computerreadable medium embodying a computer program for operating an electronicdevice including a memory and at least one processor, the computerprogram comprising computer readable instructions that, when executed bythe at least one processor, cause the electronic device to: receive oneor more notifications of at least one user activity in a contentprovider application; build at least one query based on the one or morenotifications; provide the at least one query to a database; receive atleast one cross-domain action from the database; generate at least onecross-domain recommendation based on the cross-domain action; andinstruct an application to display the at least one cross-domainrecommendation.
 16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim15, wherein the database is a graph database.
 17. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the at least onecross-domain recommendation includes two or more co-occurringcross-domain recommendations from one or more graphs in the graphdatabase.
 18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16,wherein the computer program further comprises computer readableinstructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causethe electronic device to provide information to update the graphdatabase, wherein the information includes one or more user activitiesin one or more content provider applications.
 19. The non-transitorycomputer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the information to updatethe graph database causes the graph database to add one or more nodes tothe graph database, wherein the one or more nodes are defined by one ormore action results in the one or more content provider applications.20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein theinformation to update the graph database causes the graph database todelete one or more nodes from the graph database.